A review by pekoparty
The Racism of People Who Love You: Essays on Mixed Race Belonging by Samira Mehta

4.0

The multi-racial/multi-cultural experience is not monolithic, yet there is this common thread through the experience that I observe from my own "mixed-race" experience; a thread of anxiety, disappointment, uncertainty, and vigilance. Not fully enough for either through the gaze of our family members, yet expected to be X, Y, and Z as it suits the family system's hierarchy and function. Mehta touches on many aspects of the experience of being a person of color from two contrasting families: an Indian father and a White-American mother. Much of what was written provided a salve for my own wounds of family, and no doubt that many others experiencing mixedness will take pieces away that makes each of us feel in community. The proximity to racism within our own families causes an internal distress that is hard to describe to someone who has not experienced it. Mehta captured that well, and so much more.